Daniel4

The City of Toronto has a 311 website in which someone can place requests to fix problems like potholes, fallen trees or remove abandoned bicycles locked to public property.

When I found a category for requesting reserved lanes like bus or bike lanes, I placed a request to have a bike lane installed on a major 60km/hr six lane thoroughfare just outside my neighbourhood. A lot of cars go close to 70km/hr.

2km in one direction is to my dentist at the closest shopping centre. In that direction, I have to cross two highway on ramps. Cyclists have to change lanes twice in front of motorists going 60 to 70 km/hr. Pedestrians have to stretch their necks out to look for traffic because they don't have a clear line of sight of cars coming off the highways and where they cross, they have a hard time seeing cars coming off the street onto the ramp. (The pedestrian crossing is located so the distance to cross is the shortest. But it's around a bend so motorists can't see pedestrians until they are already entering the on ramp.)

In the other direction, it's also 2km to my barber but there are no shoulders on the side to give cyclists any sense on clearance. So we really have to have guts to take the lane and hope nobody close passes at 70km/hr.

When I placed the request, the auto reply said that reserved lane requests usually take 9 months for review and that they need Council approved.

I was surprised that this morning I had received the status update stating the request was completed and closed and action will be taken October 28, 2023.

It would probably too good to be true if the bike lane request had already been approved and the bike lane installed October of this year. I suppose that's the time frame for Toronto city council and planners to review my request.

In Google Maps, sesrch for 'DVP and Lawrence'.

And yes, I do have a route through the park trail to get to my dentist.

mcours2006

I might have ridden through Lawrence and DVP once years ago when, as I recall, there were no other viable routes to get to where I was going. It's a horrible section. Any time you have to cut across a highway over or underpass it's not ideal.

Bike lane would be great, but there are some roads that you don't want to ride on, even if there's a bike lane. Highway 7 in Markham/Richmond Hill is another one of those roads.

Daniel4

I received an email from Toronto's Transportation Services, Cycling and Pedestrian Projects. This is encouraging. I didn't even know there was a dedicated department for this kind of thing.

It looks as if Lawrence Avenue from Port Union to Royal York is already under consideration for a future study.

I have always wanted to cycle along the Markham bike lanes along Hwy 7 but the trouble I have is to get there. There is no connectivity from where I live and I certainly don't want to drive all the way just to ride. It's an interesting design. Part of it at car level and part on sidewalk level. I see the new bike lanes at Steeles and Kennedy will be like that. Eglinton Ave E certainly is.

From driving at Hwy 7, see cars straddling the lines encroaching into the bike lane. CycleTO says that when Metrolinx is finished at Eglinton Ave, the city will take over and install bollards on the bike lanes at street level.

mcours2006

My problem with the cycling lanes in Toronto and the GTA in general has always been how disjointed the bike lanes are and how in some cases it is completely ridiculous. In the absence of suitable side roads to use to get to where I'm going I will take a major arterial road. Some of these arterial roads have bike lanes, but they are just painted lines added in without modifying the other lane markings. Some are a mere two-feet from the curb. But most ridiculously, the 'bike lane' inexplicably ends. In some instances, the bike lane continues 500 m down the road. The bottom line is that you cannot rely on them at all. In many cases the cyclist would be better off not having the bike lane at all. At least then he could ride further out from the curb than 2 feet. With these stupid bike lanes, drivers think that they can drive as close to that white line as they want because as long as the cyclist is inside the white line it's okay. So stupid!

Permanent bike lanes on Eglinton are good, but they too end at Kennedy. And where do you go if you have to go east of Kennedy? Certainly not Eglinton. Same thing goes for Hwy 7. The permanent lanes end west of Bayview and east of Birchmount. What are your options outside these endpoints? And when there's a snow fall, these lanes are dumping grounds for the snowplows.

FBinNY 

Congrats. Sometimes things are too easy. Possibly you lucked into something already in play, and just maybe you nudged it just enough to make the critical difference.

Either way, the ball is in play, but in your shoes i'd try to get or stay involved to make sure they don't muck it up.

Daniel4

Thanks. I make no illusion that it's going to be easy. I would expect pushback with the same arguments: bike lanes slow down traffic and bad for business, which have been shown to be false in all the other bike lanes installed downtown city of Toronto.

However Lawrence Avenue isn't downtown Toronto. It's the suburb, North York and Scarborough, where traffic is too fast and businesses are concentrated in stripmalls and plazas.

mcours2006

In the suburbs would-be cyclists don't ride because there's no infrastructure. Urban planners and politicians don't want to build infrastructure because no one rides in the suburbs. It's a self-perpetuating conundrum.

FBinNY 

It's not exactly the chicken & egg scenario. The reality is that suburban sprawl makes trip distances longer than the vast majority of residents are or would be willing (and able) to ride. Also car ownership is near 100% and cars are convenient because there's plenty of free parking.

It's a very different situation than dense cities where many will prefer bikes to mass transit.

Also consider that the demographics are very different & soccer mom's simply won't be willing to shuttle their kids around on bikes. As it is, in some suburban areas, moms are getting arrested and charged with child neglect for letting 12 year olds walk 1/2 miles home the pizza shop.

Daniel4

It'll take a long time but people will come around. I don't get pushed as often as I used to when I come out or enter my neighbourhood street. I think my rear camera plays a big factor plus the fact that there are markers on the road with a bicycle icon on them.

Downtown Toronto used to be hostile to cyclists. With the installation of bike lanes all over downtown since Rob Ford made his statement about cyclists being in a sea of sharks, a lot of drivers take greater care not to block bike lanes when they enter a street.

Since the Eglinton bike lane had opened up I've been using it to get to Yonge St. The Eglinton bike lane ends at Brentcliffe but I continue on. I haven't seen a lot of cyclists on it. I also haven't seen a lot of pedestrians on the Eglinton sidewalk either but nobody ever suggests to remove sidewalks when nobody is seen on them.

The email I received back from the city states "The City's Cycling Network Plan states that every street in Toronto should be considered for bikeways or cycling upgrades." And then the next sentence starts talking about Lawrence Avenue. So I expect that when she said "..in Toronto.." that meant metro Toronto. In my mind that would include North-South streets like Bayview, Leslie, Don Mills, Victoria PK, Pharmacy, Warden, Kennedy, etc.

We'll see how it goes. Baby steps. I've been in Toronto for 37 years now. I have ridden around when there were no bike lanes anywhere. We've come a long way since Rob Ford.

mcours2006

To some extent this is true. However, having a car doesn't preclude one from using a bike for most trips. Trips less than 3k are easily done on bike. Where I live, which is the suburbs, most, if not all, amenities, are within a 3 km radius. And to be fair, the city has put up some bike lanes, and they do get used in the warm months. But we have an actual winter with snow, so during the snow season, all that snow ends up in the bike lane. But I do agree that most residents don't consider biking to these amenities as a viable option when there's a perfectly good car sitting in the driveway.​​​​​​​

Daniel4

That reminds me on the time I taught my son how to take the bus to school.

Where was it that the mothers were arrested for letting pre-teens learn some independance?
Anyways, there are times and purposes for driving, especially when you have to drive other people who otherwise can't get anywhere on the own: like very young children, groups of kids or the elderly. But I don't see why infrastructure has to keep healthy mobile people in their cars when they are commuting under 10km, alone and don't have to haul bulk items.

I-Like-To-Bike

Good question.

Daniel4

Some good news.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toron...nent-1.6741956

No votes: Holyday (as always), Pasternak, Robinson and Thompson

And a nice change of my councillor. He voted Yes which is a break from my previous councillor who always voted 'No'.

FBinNY 

The latest that I know of was in Waco, TX last November, but sadly these stories are very common. I'm on my cell and can't link, but a search for "mother arrested for letting child walk home" should find the Waco story, and a bunch of others.

Perversely, it's more of an issue in relatively safe communities. I suppose that kids are expected to be more streetwise in other areas. Or, maybe, police in other areas have more on their plate.

These stories are a sad reflection of life in the USA, where these days, failure to be over-protective can run afoul of the law. I have a more than casual interest, partly because I believe that over protected and coddled children grow up to be problem adults. Also because some years ago a friend was reported to child agencies by the school who felt that letting a 12year old ride her bike to school was endangerment (no arrest, but lots of grief).